There’s never a time when he’s turned off his ringer that his phone pinged being anywhere other than where I expected him to be.
Our tailor for today pops in. “My apologies, I need another couple of minutes finishing with my last client. Would you prefer I have someone else come in?”
I wave him off. “It’s fine. We’re not in a hurry.”
No, we’re not. It’s a Friday afternoon, and we both took the rest of the day off.
Mainly because when we finish here, we’re driving to my place and I’m fucking my boy’s brains out all weekend at the thought of what he’s going to look like when his suits are ready.
What Daniel doesn’t know is that once they have all his measurements on file, I’m going to order several more suits for him as a surprise.
My boy’s going to go places and needs to look the part. He’s only twenty-five, but everyone who knows him professionally says practically the same things about him—he has a drive to succeed and the brains and determination to make it happen.
Sure, he could’ve afforded suits of this quality when he worked at the brokerage, but not now. He took a massive pay cut to go to work for the congressman, and paid off his new car and all other outstanding bills from his savings before he did so he wouldn’t be struggling. He can pay his rent and monthly expenses with no trouble, and can still squirrel a little money away in savings every month, but he won’t spend any fun money on himself.
He’s used to living light and lean because of what he survived.
The clerk brings a tray holding all the fixings for our tea and leaves us alone again. Daniel sits forward to do it, but I beat him to it and fill the diffusers with loose tea from one of the three jars provided.
I love taking care of him.
“Mom would be freaking out right now if I told her about this,” he sadly says as he watches me pour hot water into the fine porcelain cups.
“I’m sorry I never met her.” I mean that. “It sounds like she loved you very much.”
“Yeah.” He stares down at his hands, where he wears her wedding band on his right pinky finger. “Your mom reminds me a lot of her,” he quietly says, then snorts. “Thank god your dad’s nothing like mine.”
I add two cubes of sugar to his tea, stir, and hand it to him. “They love you, you know.” I’m stirring my own tea so I don’t put him on the spot when I add, “They keep asking when I’m going to marry you.”
Heavy griefs colors his soft sigh. “We’ve talked about this, Liam.”
“I know. But you’ve been patient with me, and I’ll be patient with you.”
“If marriage is something you have to have, I can’t prom—”
“It’snot.” I sit back and finally make myself meet his gaze. “Just don’t be surprised if I start hinting around to you about moving in with me.”
He smirks. “Not quite ready to give up my own space yet.”
Safety and security are two of his needs, just like not being left in limbo is one of mine. “Baby, I told you it’s fine.”
His expression softens. “I guess we both have our ‘ghosts,’ huh?”
“You’ve been more than patient with me about mine. I mean it when I say I’m good even if you never want to have more than we do now. All I need is to know where you are.” I lift my cup to my lips. “Don’t expect me to tell Mom to back off, though, when she starts hinting about planning our wedding.”
He laughs. “I see where you got your determination from.”
I shrug. “Would you want me any other way?”
The head tip he uses as he studies me is familiar. One of his adorable tells I am lucky enough to see because he’s dropped a lot of his defenses with me.
Not all of them, and understandably so. He’s been through a lot.
I’ve been through a lot.
Together, we meet in that space where we’re both trying to learn to quiet our inner demons and listen to the world instead of our toxic inner chatter. Where we go out of our way to make the other feel comfortable.
“No,” he says, taking another sip of tea. “I like you all pushy and spanky.” He grins. “Getting me all hot and bothered,” he adds in a whisper.
